Northampton native new schools chief

Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik lived most of his life in the borough.

July 08, 2010|By Arlene Martínez, OF THE MORNING CALL

From the window of his Northampton Area School District office, Joseph Kovalchik can look down and see his parents' house, the one he grew up in and where he sometimes pops by for lunch.

Those visits, though, might be few and far between as Kovalchik gets acquainted with his new role as Northampton's top administrator.

The board last month voted 8-1 to replace the retiring Linda J. Firestone with the 42-year-old Kovalchik, formerly the assistant superintendent of personnel and general administration.

You can't get much more hometown than Kovalchik, who has not only spent his entire 19-year career with the district, he's lived nearly his whole life within its boundaries.

Kovalchik officially became superintendent July 1, and it's been a series of meetings and planning sessions as he prepares for the start of the 2010-11 school, which involves opening two new schools and moving forward on plans to build a new middle school.

In the fall, the district is opening Washington's Crossing, an alternative school for grades 7-12 that will be housed in the old Washington Elementary School. Kovalchik says roughly 40 students will attend the school, which is meant to capture students who would either otherwise drop out or who don't do well in traditional classroom setting.

Kovalchik says a benefit of Washington's Crossing is that students temporarily barred from school will have someplace to go.

"You will no longer sit at home while you serve your suspension," said Kovalchik.

The district is also making its first foray into cyber schools with the launch of VLINC (Virtually Linking Instruction and Curriculum). Students of all grades can enroll in VLINC, which is being offered through the Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. Opening its own cyber school means Northampton can keep more of students — and the state funding that comes with them — within the district.

But if there's to be a subject that's certain to continue generating controversy, it's the planned $40 to $60 million middle school, something that's been in the works since before Kovalchik joined the district as a health and physical education teacher in 1991.

The district has spent millions in plans that never went anywhere. A district committee in 1987 recommended building a middle school, but in the years following the board voted time and time again to kill the plans.

The project remains controversial within the current board, with some members still not convinced of the need for a new school. Yet the project chugs ahead.

Kovalchik declined to say what direction he favored, saying his job was to make sure the board had all the facts to make a decision.

"Ultimately, based on the information they receive from me they have to vote, and represent their constituents," he said. "We definitely need to do something with our existing building. It's a 40-year-old school with multiple issues."

No matter how the school progresses — first up is getting a zoning change on land the district owns in East Allen Township to build the school — Kovalchik has an even greater priority: increasing student achievement.

Starting next school year, state standards dictate that 67 percent of its students be proficient in math, and 72 percent in reading, up from 56 and 63 respectively.

Meeting those standards will be a challenge, said Kovalchik.

"Our No. 1 goal is how to improve achievement," he said.

Whether he is successful directly impacts his family: his two sons just finished third and sixth grade at Siegfried Elementary, where his wife teaches third grade. And his parents, who live in the 19th Street house where Kovalchik grew up, are also watching how he does, albeit less with a critical eye than with pride.

"I've been very fortunate in my career," said Kovalchik. "The district has been very good to me."